I read with excitement and frustration in yesterday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the East Liberty neighborhood could soon be filled with major retail stores like Target.... I read with excitement and frustration in yesterday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the East Liberty neighborhood could soon be filled with major retail stores like Target. If you're one of those who don't like chain stores, let me tell you, I wish there were a local store like Target, but there isn't. If you're one of those who don't like to consume, let me tell you, I love to go to Target and buy lots of not too expensive, but nice, things if I feel depressed.

I wish stores like Target would move into cities like Pittsburgh at a faster rate. I also wish they would come to my neighborhood.

Don't get me wrong, East Liberty is a great place--and in a great location near the colleges in Oakland and the high-end retail and residences of Shadyside. It has some great buildings--on a much larger scale than most anything on Pittsburgh's Northside.

I have two requests for the city and the developers with these plans. First, I ask that they work with the businesses that currently exist in East Liberty helping them to develop their business. This will not only help make the East Liberty retail area more unique with local stores. It will also help empower local residents. Local businesses have a greater economic multiplier effect than chain stores, who send much of the profit or administration costs to the city where their base is located.

That's not to say we don't need big retailers and chain stores like Target. A big store like that in a city as starved for retail as this will certainly bring lots of shoppers to East Liberty. If the local businesses aren't forced out by the Urban Redevelopment Authority and developers, they will surely benefit from the additional traffic.

The second request is to build these stores in an urban-friendly manner. If there must be parking, build parking garages. Make necessary transit improvements to maximize the numbers who come to the stores without a car. Finally, make the stores connect to or have entrances on the established retail street. This idea is not unlike the diagram I provided for the Waterfront retail district. A Target off in the back surrounded with a big lot won't do much for the existing retail street or the urban fabric.

Bring the Target, but leave suburbia in the suburbs.